1. Technical Field
The present disclosure is generally related to keyboards, and more particularly, to an adjustable and ergonomic keyboard and layout and supporting structure thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Increasing use of computers and other hardware manipulated and controlled using keyboards has given rise to rethinking the ergonomic design of keyboards. Users often type on keyboards for long durations on consecutive days, giving rise to aches and pains in the users' hands and arms. Often prolonged use of keyboards with poor hand and arm positioning can lead to conditions such as tendonitis.
Some existing keyboards incorporate designs that result in different posturing of the user. The effectiveness of such designs varies; however one common drawback of conventional designs for adjustable keyboards is their lack of flexibility.
Typically, adjustable keyboards can be adjusted within a limited set of adjustment measurements that are decided by the manufacturer. For example, some adjustable keyboards can only be repositioned between a few different tenting angles (i.e., the angle at which the base of the keyboard is inclined with respect to the support surface) or splaying angles (i.e., the angle between inner lateral ends of split keyboards).
Other drawbacks of at least some conventional keyboards include lack of user acceptance. In particular, because for years computer users used early keyboard designs, they became accustomed to working with and developing muscle memory for remembering the position of the various keys on these keyboards. Therefore, users were resistant to trying new designs, fearing it would not be as comfortable or that it may reduce their typing efficiency.
Furthermore, adjustable keyboards that provide slightly more flexible adjustments are generally more costly to manufacture and thus more expensive to purchase.
The industry has also been slow in developing effective accessories for adjustable keyboards. For example, mountable supports that facilitate supporting a keyboard while attaching to another structure are typically deficient in effectively supporting computer peripherals and in allowing a user to reconfigure the support.
Applicants' co-pending application Ser. No. 11/788,733 aims to improve conventional keyboard designs. Although embodiments described in that application improve on conventional designs in areas such as cost, ease of assembly and use, and adjustment flexibility, some embodiments continue to have components that have high dimensional tolerances while other embodiments have certain flexibility drawbacks.
Other aspects of computer keyboards that have not been adequately addressed by conventional designs include keyboard layout and programming capabilities. For example, keyboard layouts for Apple® computers have been in large part very basic with few if any keys that have macros associated with them to carry out functions typically requiring multiple keys. Other keyboards with hot keys are often large in size due to positioning of the hot keys and the hot keys are either not efficiently programmable or require driver installation.